Golden Shores
by Ja-Kha'jay
Summary: A Caitian repair technition and her daily life on our favourite starship. Short so far, rating may go up in later chapters


Golden Shores

Golden Shores

By Lakyan

Disclaimer: StarTrek: Voyager and its characters belong to Paramount.

Chapter One: Stranded.

M'ralli strode purposefully down the corridor to her next assignment, repairing some bio-neural circuitry which had been damaged by the Kazon attack.

She was still numbed by Janeway's decision to destroy the array, and she was saddened by the fact she was the only one of her kind on the ship. And she was stuck 70,000 light years from the nearest outpost.

She spotted the offending bulkhead, and hunkered down to get to work. She pulled out a hyperspanner and proceeded to remove the damaged components. She heard someone coming down the corridor and dismissed it, concentrating on her work, until that someone stood on her tail.

"MRraaooww!!" She snarled as she yanked her tail back.

M'ralli began to rise, to admonish the offender, but the bulkhead above her stopped her, rather abruptly.

"I'm soo sorry, is there anything I can do? I'm not used to species with caudal appendages." A voice said behind her.

M'ralli swiveled her ears to the sound as she extracted herself from the hollow.

She found herself glaring down at that strange little alien that had helped Janeway on the nearby planet, Ocampa, and his lady friend.

"Next time you should be morrre carrreful" M'ralli said, her voice quiet, despite her irritation.

"What an interesting species…Like the Raconi, but much more…" The alien said, peering eagerly at her face.

M'ralli laid her ears back, hopefully relaying the intended message. The male did not catch the message, but the female did.

"We should go." She said, tugging gently on her companion's arm.

"But not without introducing ourselves first, sweetie." He pleaded.

"I'm Neelix, a Talaxian. And this is Kes, an Ocampan." Neelix extended his hand in the newly learned human fashion.

M'ralli took the proffered hand, and introduced herself. "I'm M'ralli, a Caitian."

"Pleased to meet you." Neelix and Kes said at the same time, but Kes continued. "Now we really need to get going." And she tugged him harder.

"Ok, ok, we'll go. See you later." Neelix managed before Kes dragged him around the corner.

M'ralli gave her tail a quick check, as it was still throbbing. She'd go to the sick bay to get it checked out after she'd repaired the damaged circuitry.

"Please state the nature of the medical emergency" said a brusque voice from the other side of the room as soon as she stepped into the room.

She looked to the voice, and saw a harassed looking man tending to a seriously ill Bolian.

"It is no emerrrgency. I can wait." She said.

"Good. Mr. Chell here saw fit to ingest a herb from Ocampa, which strangely for a Bolian, didn't agree with him." The doctor explained as Chell vomited into a bucket.

"Need a hand?" M'ralli offered.

"Yes, if you could get me a hypospray of Vertazine, it would be much appreciated."

"I didn't think holograms could 'appreciate' anything" Chell remarked, earning a disapproving glare from the doctor.

M'ralli passed the hypospray to the doctor, hoping it contained the correct drug. It did not.

"This is not Vertazine, but this does the same job." The doctor pressed the hypospray to the Bolians neck and dispensed the medicine. Chell stopped vomiting and began to return to his natural blue colour.

"You're free to go" the doctor waved Chell off, who disappeared quickly.

"Not so much as a thank you. Now, what can I do for you?" the Doctor turned to his new patient.

"Someone stepped on my tail, I just want to check nothing's brrroken." M'ralli told him.

The doctor scanned the appendage with the medical tricorder and frowned.

"Just a couple of broken bones, nothing an osteogenic stimulator can't fix." The doctor waved her over to a bio-bed, and proceeded to repair her broken tail bones.

"Thank you, it feels much betterrr." M'ralli got up to leave.

"Would you mind turning my program off when you leave?" the doctor asked.

"Of courrrse. Computerrr, deactivate Emerrrgency Medical Hologrrram." M'ralli told the computer, and left as the hologram disappeared.

Later that evening M'ralli was struggling to get one of the replicators in the Mess Hall going. It had been playing up, dispensing nothing but orange flavoured jelly.

"Computerrr, access Caitian dietarrry prrreferrrences." M'ralli asked from the open conduit.

"Accessed." The computer chirruped.

"Replicate a Chak'la please."

The computer acknowledged and a whizzing sound was heard as the computer replicated another bowl of orange jelly.

"Computerrr, rrrecycle the orange jelly." M'ralli growled low.

"Maybe you'd have better luck if you hit it." A cheeky voice said from behind her.

"Glady." She muttered and smacked her fist onto the side of the replicator. A loose wire fell down.

"Thank you." She mumbled to the man behind her.

"No problem."

"Can you please hand me the microsolderrring iron?" She asked, and the tool was placed into her hand. She quickly soldered the wire to the correct place on the circuit board.

"Let's trrry it now." She looked up from the open conduit.

"Computerrr, rrreplicate a Caitian Chak'la." She ordered and the computer complied, dispensing a meal that vaguely resembled an Earth curry.

"Hmm, smells good." Said the man behind her.

M'ralli turned to face her unknown helper. A handsome human male stood there, in civilian clothing. He had attractive reddish hair.

"A human prrrobably could not stomach this." M'ralli passed the plate to him, while she replaced the panel over the conduit.

"Try me."

"Verrry well. Computerrr, anotherrr Chak'la." M'ralli took a second plate, and with her tool box, she took a seat at a nearby table. The handsome human followed her.

"I'm Tom Paris." He introduced himself as he sat down.

"The obserrrverrr? I'm M'ralli." She took a mouthful of her meal, savouring the flavours of home, despite its oddly artificial taste.

"Yeah, the observer, though who knows now that we are stuck out here. The helmsman is dead, and I'm the best pilot on the ship, so we'll see what Janeway decides." And Tom took a big mouthful of the Chak'la and immediately regretted it as his face turned as red as his hair.

"What's wrong Tom?" another human male asked, clapping the Tom on the shoulder.

"Nothing," Tom rasped. "Just a little hot."

"Hi, I'm Harry." The new human introduced himself as he sat down with his own meal.

"M'ralli." She answered.

They wolfed down their meals after which Tom and Harry were called away. M'ralli sat at the table a little longer when the Ocampan female from earlier joined her.

"Hi, I wanted to apologize again for your tail, Neelix isn't usually so careless." Kes told her.

"That is okay, a couple of brrroken bones, easy to fix." M'ralli said, smiling a Caitian grin.

"You must feel so alone, to be the only one of your kind here." Kes said.

"I will surrrvive." M'ralli tried to act staunch, but Kes saw right through it.

"I'm the only one of my kind here too. The rest of my people are cowering beneath the surface of their world, unaware of the dangers the Kazon represent."

"Then perrrhaps one day, we will both see our people again."

"Perhaps, but for now we have each other's friendship.

They both stared out the window to the starscape beyond, both heading into unfamiliar territory, in the same boat as the reast of the crew.


End file.
